Activities Promoting Healthy Aging

Lack of activities can prevent you from living healthy. When you do not enjoy activities, you may feel tired and find it difficult to fall asleep at night. When you awake in the morning, you may feel exhausted, until you finally fall asleep. As we age our body changes, and we have to make changes to accommodate our lives.

Having a good night sleep makes the mind think more clearly and boosts your energy while controlling your weight. You can also make better decisions with less stress. Sleeping well helps keep our immune system stronger, healthier, reduces growth hormones in our bodies and the list goes on. Sleep overall is very important.

Walking helps loosen muscles, reduces stress, depression and anxiety. By reliving these things, it will help us to sleep for a longer and deeper period. So, when we wake up, we feel happier and more rested.

Start a walking program in the morning to help wake you up, while boosting your energy. You will feel better since the joints will feel flexible enough to move freely. In addition, walking will help you burn fat and calories. You’ll notice a big change in how you feel the rest of the day. Start out walking at a slow steady pace for as far as your comfortable. Each day pick up the pace a bit and walk further. Just remember when walking that you want to work up to a steady brisk walk to make you sweat but not out of breath. Take a short walk before and after meals to calm your nerves, and burn calories too, it will give you energy, relieve that stress from the long day and help you sleep.

When a person feels exhausted, they feel weak and uninterested in enjoying everyday activities, leading to additional problems.

What to avoid:
To rest properly and feel more active you must reduce your caffeine and/or nicotine intake as well as alcohol (I know this may be incredibly hard for some people). Try to avoid drinking anything after 8 p.m. in the evening. Nicotine should be avoided, if at all possible, yet if you must smoke try to avoid smoking after 8 p.m.

After walking that brisk walk you’re doing be sure to cool down. When walking at a vigorous pace your heart rate will go up and it needs to be back to normal. Just walk a bit slow and relaxing until you’ve cooled down.

If you can’t go to sleep at night instead of getting up and turning on the TV, try pacing around the house. Do some stretching and shake your arms and legs. Even walking around the house can relax you especially when everyone else is in bed and you can relax more.